This invention relates to surgical accessories and more particularly to a holder for retaining contaminated sutures, needles and other surgical instruments.
During surgical operations, a nurse or other operating room personnel is required to supply the surgeon with surgical needles, sutures and sharps as the occasion arises. An accurate count must be maintained of these instruments to insure that all needles, sutures and sharps have been removed from the patient prior to closing. The prior art discloses a number of patents directed to organization of these surgical instruments, both prior to and after being used by the surgeon. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,115 to Horvath, et al, Aug. 8, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,802 to Freithe, Feb. 22, 1977; U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,913 to Freithe, May 1, 1979; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,658 to Eldridge, Jr., Apr. 17, 1973, disclose devices to organize and account for needles, sutures and sharps used during a surgical operation. However, these devices have a number of disadvantages. The devices of the prior art occupy a large surface area of the sterile space on the Mayo stand table or back table. While these devices may occupy up to 70.0 square inches of surface, they hold only ten to thirty needles. Another drawback of these prior art organizers is that some employ adhesive to secure them on the Mayo stand table or to retain the used needles. The adhesive tends to stick to anything that touches it, including the gloved hand of the nurse using the organizer or the metal needle instrument used to deposit needles or sharps in the organizer. Additionally, since these devices are lightweight and adhesively secured to the table, they are not easily repositioned to accommodate the nurse when receiving used needles and sharps from different directions or at different angular orientations, particularly when two or more surgeons are simultaneously involved in the surgery.
Some of the prioer art devices employ magnetic pads to retain needles and sharps. These magnetic pads are sensitive to any movement, and the needles and sharps become disorganized if these devices are accidentally jarred. The metal needle instrument frequently used to deposit needles in the organizer is also magnetically attracted to the magnetic pads and may disturb needles already placed in the organizer resulting in dropped and lost needles.
The foam pads, adhesive exposed pads and magnetic pads disclosed by the prior art also present a danger to the nurse placing needles in these devices. The sharp points of the needles placed in these devices remain unduly exposed so that a nurse may puncture her glove and prick her finger if not careful when placing needles on these pads. A puncture destroys the sterile condition required for the glove.
There is a desire among operating room personnel, particularly those persons responsible for the needle count, for a device which eliminates the above disadvantages of the needle count devices presently available. This invention solves the above mentioned problems by safely and accurately disposing of contaminated needles, sutures and sharps.